A night of celebration with poetry, music, and great food was held in recognition of North Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Places (SFP) Silver Award.

North Lancashire was one of seven places across the UK that received the prestigious award, which recognises the outstanding efforts of individuals, organisations, businesses, and community groups in promoting healthy, sustainable, and local food. The submission was led by Beccy Whittle, a former Senior Lecturer at Lancaster Environment Centre, who helped put together the 230 pages of evidence for the award, demonstrating North Lancashire has a diverse, robust, and sustainable cross-sector food partnership effectively promoting access to sustainable and healthy food for all.

The event, held at University of Cumbria’s Lancaster campus, brought together North Lancashire Food Futures’ extensive and diverse network of food champions. Growers, beekeepers, chefs and community cooks, conservationists, independent food businesses, activists, and composters all joined together to hear Leon Ballin, Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, contrast North Lancashire’s ‘grassroots approach’ to the issues with the top-down, local authority led model of other areas.

Jamie Murphy, FoodFutures Partnership Chair and a Community Connector at Lancaster City Council, commented:

“Receiving the Silver Sustainable Food Places award is a fantastic achievement for Lancaster District. Congratulations and thanks go out to the fantastic, committed, and inspired individuals, groups and organisations who have dedicated time and effort to improving the local food system for all.”

Professor Jess Davies, Director of the Centre for Global Eco-innovation at Lancaster University, has collaborated with Food Futures as part of the Rurban Revolution and Rurban Hopespots projects. Their research explored how regional data can help identify where and how food projects can deliver the most benefits to people and the environment alike.

“We can’t hope to solve problems like food poverty, environmentally damaging farming practices, and the economic difficulties facing independent food businesses without coordination and collaboration. Cross-sector, community-led initiatives like FoodFutures can be truly transformative, and North Lancashire is an example of how passionate people from all walks of life can help our food system become more sustainable.”

Click here for more information about the award and how you can get involved with the FoodFutures project.